Bicycles have been used as a means of recreation and transportation for many years. With the advent of the fuel crisis in the 1970's and the rise in overall health consciousness in society, bicycling recently gained even greater popularity. Finally, just recently, mountain biking has become the most popular form of bicycling with sales of mountain bikes surpassing those of ordinary road bikes.
With the increase in the popularity of mountain biking, bicycle developers have been faced with issues that were of little or no concern when most bicycle riders road on the street. Foremost of these issues is the issue of shock absorption devices for a bicycle. Mountain bikers quickly learned that a rough trail could equate to a sore body without proper suspension for the bicycle.
Hence, there have been many recent developments of shock absorbers for bicycles. These developments have tended to consist of a variety of linear shock absorbers placed at various locations on a bicycle frame to provide for front and rear shock absorption. While satisfactory results have been obtained, unfortunately there have been problems associated with traditional shock absorbers for bicycles. Specifically, linear shock absorbers tend to be expensive, high maintenance devices that tend to wear out long before most of the other bicycle parts. Owners have been forced to either buy a new bicycle or replace the shock absorbers, both of which are very costly.
Torsion springs are also well known devices. Torsion springs are very low maintenance, inexpensive, and tend to have a long life that often equals or surpasses that of the equipment on which they are being used. Torsion spring prior use has included many applications, such as: exercise equipment, military equipment, automobiles and trucks.